Over the last few months I've been enjoying more and more Ryes, I've bought a few bottles and swapped a few samples so am looking at three lower, three mid range and three higher ABV Ryes over three blogs.
Rye is normally defined as being very spicy - all three of these are from US distilleries, let's see what they are like!
| Dram | Michter's US*1 Barrel Strength Rye | New York Distilling Company Ragtime Rye Cask 445 | Buffalo Trace Thomas H. Handy Sazerac 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 56.5% ABV Undisclosed mash bill so at least 51% Rye | 57.9% ABV 72% Rye, 16% Corn, 12% Malted Barley mash bill | 64.5% ABV Undisclosed mash bill so at least 51% Rye |
| Bottling notes | Butterscotch and cinnamon with a hint of cherries on the nose; Warming, rich, toasty vanilla and caramel up front; A dry oaky spice on the finish | Distilled from rye proudly grown in New York State, this uncompromised whiskey is aged exclusively in full-size barrels for three years to ensure robust flavor and nuanced finish. Cold northern winters and rich soil provide an ideal terroir for the rye varietals selected from our farmers. | Powerful, lush, and boldly spicy. Flavors of toffee, fig cake, and candied fruit, followed by mint, cinnamon and clove. The finish ultimately reveals subtle notes of allspice, coconut and nutmeg. Long and warm. |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |  | ||
| Toffee bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, beads form as an inverted crown and fall as slow thin legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and immediately fall as slow thin legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls form a crack inside the glass with beads falling as slow thing legs. | |
| Nose | Huge toffee notes straight out of the glass, there's lots of dry cinnamon spice, brown sugar and a hint of orchard fruit. | Huge rye spice notes, ginger, cinnamon balanced by vanilla. Loads of sweet red berry notes - strawberry, raspberry and maybe some cherries? | Not as strong as the other two, this one has more earthy notes, some hints of parma violets and a dry peppery spice. |
| Palate | Thick syrupy arrival, fairly gentle to start with with berries and vanilla. Then the spice hits - wow huge! There's no holding back with the ABV on this one - sour grapefruit, vanilla, drying oak, and cherries notes. A few more sips offer more of the brown sugar and orchard fruit from the nose and a little parma violet action! | Again a thick syrupy arrival - loads of spice notes, the vanilla and red berries from the nose are here along with some tropical fruit and citrus notes. The ABV does hide on this one - you'd easily think it was 45-50%. A few more sips offer more fruit and a dryness in the mouth. | .Another thick syrupy arrival, again very spicy and again the ABV hits straight away. This is a little like a sherry bomb - the moisture is stripped from the mouth leaving ginger spice, oak, vanilla and sour citrus. I'm not going to add water, it may need it but it's great without it - subsequent sips offer dark chocolate and dried fruit - nice! |
| Finish | Long gingery spice, oaky vanilla and a little fruit. icing sugar dryness and an ABV numb on the lips. | Long and spicy, the drying notes continue as do the red fruit. There is a little sweetness carrying through from the nose. Yummy! | Again long and spicy, it's like a stuck record! Huge drying effect of oak and sour citrus. |
| Overall | Wow - high ABV, high spice and lots of icing sugar dryness, some fruit notes and a little chocolate. The mash bills on two of these is undisclosed so it's difficult to make comparisons - they all had huge spice notes but some of that could be due to the ABV. To be honest while all were nice, only the Ragtime really stood out - it hid its ABV and offered more complex fruit notes. | ||
| Ryes overall | So in this little series I've tried 9 different Ryes - 3 lower ABV, 3 middle ABV and 3 higher ABV and to be honest I'd go with the middle ones - 50% seems to be a bit of a sweet spot - the lower ABV ones were a little watery and the higher ABV ones just a little too strong. As I've said none of them were bad. Bourbon tends to take all the limelight for 'American Whiskey' but I suggest to try the the Rye as well. Of the 9 I'd suggest a new Rye drinker goes for the Lot #40, then up to the Rittenhouse and then maybe try the Ragtime. There is a lower ABV Ragtime which is very good but wasn't included as part of this series. | ||
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